Make This the Year You Cut the Cable Cord Completely

A.K.A. "Honey, I shrunk the cable bill."

We've been mulling over whether or not to ditch cable a lot recently at REDBOOK HQ. Since one of our New Year's resolutions is to stop wavering and start acting when it comes to making decisions (especially ones that can save money!), we finally decided to do the research. Please note that if you like to watch things live or have certain shows and events that are appointment viewing; however, cutting the cord may not be for you. Some live events like the Super Bowl are also streamed online, but many still require cable.

As long as you've got a broadband Internet connection (and, in most cases, WiFi), the final steps in the cable liberation process involve picking the device(s) you'll use to stream content and the streaming service(s) that best fit your needs. We did some Nancy Drew-ing to see what's out there; how you mix-and-match the devices and services is entirely up to you.

A tiny plastic box roughly 4" x 4", the Roku 3, which launched in March, finally added a much-needed YouTube app. Any member of the Roku family will satisfy your basic streaming needs, though. In addition to to the usual streaming services, Roku has thousands of channels like PBS Kids, Vudu Movies, and The Daily Burn, and can play music through Pandora and Spotify. You can stream local video content from your iPhone with the Roku app, but unfortunately it won't play DRM (digital rights managed) iTunes movies. The box can be controlled with a tiny remote, which comes with your device, or the app.

Google's entry to the no-cable game is a little dongle that plugs into the back of your TV. Once it's connected to WiFi, you can control the TV using your smartphone, tablet, or laptop (and even turn it on and off... so sayonara, remote control). Since Chromecast pulls video information from the cloud, you can still use your phone, laptop, or tablet for other things while Chromecasting. It also enables your TV to mirror a Chrome browser tab on your laptop or tablet, which is a good workaround for the services like Amazon Instant Video, with which Chromecast is not officially compatible. Like Roku, Chromecast can't play DRM iTunes files.

Similar in appearance and function to Roku, Apple TV can be controlled either with the included remote or with AirPlay, which requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Like Chromecast, you can mirror what's on your iOS devices on your HDTV. If you find yourself buying or renting a lot of shows and movies through iTunes, this is the device for you.

This super-slim box is also similar to Roku and Apple TV, and can either be operated with the small remote—which also has voice control—or Fire TV app on your smartphone or Kindle Fire HDX. You can mirror your tablet or smartphone, play games from Amazon's extensive library, and do some impromptu karaoke (it pulls up lyrics as you stream songs from Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Vevo). Unfortunately, Fire TV isn't compatible with iTunes or HBO Go. A service called FreeTime allows parents to set controls that limit screentime and restrict certain types of programming.

The Wii U includes Nintendi TVii, which brings together all of your streaming services, so when you want to search for a particular show, you can search by title, and TVii will do the legwork of finding which service has it.

This is probably the best service for people who like to watch the most recent episodes of shows (versus waiting for Netflix to get entire seasons or buying them piecemeal on iTunes). It also features movies from Miramax and The Criterion collection. Available on Internet-connected devices for $7.99/month with limited advertising.

The gold standard of binge-viewing sites—cue up Breaking Bad and poof, there goes your weekend. Thanks to Golden Globe nominations for House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, Netflix is now a major part of the original programming game. New members can get a one-month free trial, then streaming plans start at $7.99/month (for viewing on 2 screens at the same time) and $11.99/month (for 4 screens at the same time).

The Amazon Instant Video Library functions in a similar manner to iTunes, where you pay for the content you want piecemeal. Amazon also offers Prime, where for $79/year, you get unlimited instant streaming of over 41,000 movies and TV shows, over 350,000 Kindle titles to borrow for free, and free two-day shipping on orders (that part's not related to cutting cable, but it is a nice perk). Prime is gaining momentum in the streaming community, and has some pretty popular shows Netflix is lacking, like Downton Abbey and The Good Wife.

Many of the devices above list HBO Go as a major streaming selling point; however, getting HBO Go access without a cable subscription to the premium channel requires a bit of Macguyvering. This informative WSJ article will walk you how to do it.

So there you have it: a snapshot of the choices that await in your life without cable. My family uses a Roku and Chromecast, and we have subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu Plus, so that's an initial cost of about $50 for the Roku (we bought it two years ago) and $35 for the Chromecast, then $35/month for Internet, and about $16/month for the content providers. Much cheaper than our old cable bill, which was over $100. From time to time, we'll rent or buy movies through Amazon, which is why we keep the Roku (otherwise Chromecast does pretty much everything we need).

We hope this primer gives you everything you need to figure out the device(s) and service(s) that can help your family ditch the coronary-causing monthly cable bill, too. With the way our watching habits have evolved in the past few years, let us close with an adapted quote about the future of TV-watching from one of our favorite technologically forward-thinking characters: Where we're going, we don't need cable.

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